NEWLANDS TEST
Australia’s Turnbull says ball-tampering ‘beyond belief’
Newlands — Australia’s ball-tampering crisis in their Test series in SA hit the national conversation on Sunday when Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull laid into Steve Smith’s side. "It seemed completely beyond belief that the Australian cricket team had been involved in cheating," Turnbull was quoted as saying by the Melbourne Age. "After all, our cricketers are role models and cricket is synonymous with fair play. "How can our team be engaged in cheating like this? It beggars belief." Smith admitted on Saturday that he and the rest of what he called Australia’s "leadership group" had roped Cameron Bancroft, the most junior member of the team, who is playing his eighth Test, into a plan to try to roughen the ball by rubbing it with sticking tape loaded with sand taken from the pitch. Smith and Bancroft confessed after the latter was caught redhanded by television cameras before tea on day three of the third Test at Newlands on Saturday. On Sunday, Smith and vice-captain David Warner s...
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